New York|A Moment of Solidarity at the Stonewall Inn, a Gay Rights Landmark

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A Moment of Solidarity at the Stonewall Inn, a Gay Rights Landmark

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In support of the victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., hundreds gathered outside the Stonewall Inn in New York, where a riot in 1969 helped launch the gay rights movement.

By Noah Remnick

June 13, 2016

From a thousand miles away, they watched as the horrors replayed in an endless loop, the death count climbing to an unimaginable high. For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender New Yorkers coping with news of the massacre in Orlando, Fla., the grief was compounded by a sense of helplessness. Donations of money could do only so much, and calls for gun control are so often unheeded. Even giving blood was not an option for gay men, who are largely barred from donating.

So, despondent but not despairing, thousands converged on the West Village in Manhattan on Monday night for a vigil at the Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement was ignited by a series of riots in 1969. For many New Yorkers, this was the most powerful form of demonstration possible: reclaiming this sanctum of gay life that had so recently been transformed into a war zone in Orlando.

“Going to the bars now is an act of activism and defiance,” said Nico Medina, 34, a book editor from Orlando who now lives in South Slope, Brooklyn. “It’s a powerful reminder to people that we’re standing together.”

The crowd on Monday night, wedged tightly together in the triangle of streets facing Stonewall, listened intently to a group of speakers, including top New York State and city elected officials, openly gay City Council members as well as the singer Nick Jonas and the actor Tituss Burgess.

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Flowers, signs and photos were placed outside the Stonewall Inn.CreditGeorge Etheredge for The New York Times

The speakers bemoaned not only the assault on the gay club, but also the lack of action in Congress to pass comprehensive federal gun control legislation, necessitating vigils like this too often.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton and other city officials joined the commemoration, calling for calm, unity and gun legislation that would ban nationwide — as they are in New York — the military-style automatic weapon used in the attack and others like it.

“We passed gun control in this state,” said Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, standing before a lectern festooned with a sign declaring “We Are Orlando,” and flanked by an American flag and a gay pride flag. “We outlawed assault weapons in this state. We know it can be done.”

He added, “Until we have a national policy, none of us are safe.”

Mr. de Blasio welcomed the thousands of people who had come “all in solidarity, all in common cause,” and he criticized those who were using the tragedy to turn Americans against one another.

“We do not accept anyone who would sow division or hatred,” Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said. “We do not accept the notion of any of our leaders sowing hatred and division part in the wake of tragedy. And that means you, Donald Trump.”

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Elected officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, spoke at the event and criticized Donald J. Trump’s response to the shooting.CreditGeorge Etheredge for The New York Times

The crowd’s grief seemed magnified by the fact that Omar Mateen, who was born in New York, perpetrated the killings and that at least two victims identified by the authorities had roots in the city as well.

The New Yorkers who died at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, included Enrique Rios, 25, a student who lived with his grandmother in Brooklyn and was on vacation in Florida, and Shane Tomlinson, 33, a singer from Queens who had moved to Orlando.

Standing guard at the rally was a large squad of New York City police officers, many wearing counterterrorism gear. Mr. de Blasio said that no credible threats had been directed at New York, though the Orlando shooting had city officials here “on high alert.”

The authorities deployed hundreds of specialized officers and added uniformed police at heavily trafficked areas of Manhattan and at places popular among gay people, officials said.

“I can remember the days when cops were raiding this place,” said William Drummer, 91, watching the crowd thicken. “It touches my heart to see this kind of solidarity.”

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Thousands of people attended a vigil on Monday at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan to remember the victims of the Orlando mass shooting.CreditGeorge Etheredge for The New York Times

Stacey Lentz, a co-owner of the Stonewall, said she felt comforted by the added protection, but also by throngs of people who have been gathering at the bar since Sunday morning, bedecking its red brick facade with flowers and cards, and overwhelming the street out front for the vigil.

“The L.G.B.T. community has survived so much before, from AIDS to hate crimes,” said Ms. Lentz, 46. “And we’re continuing to show that we’re strong and love wins.”

Still, Ms. Lentz acknowledged that like Pulse, her business was a potential target. “Those victims could’ve been any L.G.B.T. person at any bar around the country,” she said. “But gay bars have always been one place where we can feel free. We refuse to have that taken from us.”

Austin Wade said he had expected to spend June celebrating Gay Pride Month with parades and other celebrations. Instead last night he joined the demonstration, unable to shake the feeling that he could have been one of the 49 victims.

“I go to gay clubs all the time,” said Mr. Wade, a 27-year-old writer from Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. “It could’ve been me on that dance floor.”

As day turned to night, each victim’s name and age was read aloud, while a stiff gust of wind whipped through the crowd. One by one, mourners lifted a hand to guard their candles, unwilling to let anything extinguish the flames.

Correction:June 18, 2016

Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about a second vigil at the Stonewall Inn in New York for the 49 people who died in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., misstated, in some editions, the surname of a 25-year-old man from Brooklyn who was one of those killed. He was Enrique Rios, not Ross.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: A Moment of Solidarity at a Landmark in the Fight for Equal Rights. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe